While waiting to read others who will surely rise to the eternal bait offered to us poor fish who wander the streams of New Mexico education… Three quick news items from the past week: In a neat judicial-meets-political trick, the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) finagled the courts to allow appeal of the preliminary… Read More NM Educational Miscellany, 1.10.16

Yes, K-12 education policy is EXACTLY like the mafia cliché, thanks for asking… Not to get dragged back into it or anything, but I’d be remiss and derelict in my “duties” as blogger if I didn’t follow-up and close the twisting saga of the New Mexico Public Education Department “School Grades” and PARCC participation rates.… Read More 2014-2015 New Mexico School Grades, #5: Postscript

The state of Nebraska has devilishly broken into the Sodom and Gomorrah that is the “protected bike lane” with 17 blocks of the gloriously decadent stuff in college town, Lincoln. As you might expect, there are complaints. Teeth are being gnashed. Ver is being klempted. And as is always the case, the news story outlining… Read More Elsewhere in Bike Lane Controversy: Lincoln, Nebraska

A few days back I was involved in a sparkling conversation that eventually turned to the fun-filled question: What time of day is most dangerous for cycling? Is it “rush hour,” as simple more motorists = higher probability logic would tell us? Is it the ever slightly changing time of dawn/dusk? I then proceeded to… Read More Cycling Deaths and Time of Day

Let me start by mentioning that I absolutely detest the word “branding.” I’m sure I’d hate it if I were a cow, but, of course, the “branding” I’m talking about here is marketing/salesspeak (ergo: worthless) for what people are supposed to think when they hear the word/phrase associated with something. Even worse is the word “re-branding,”… Read More 2014-2015 New Mexico School Grades, “Final Exam”: Dropping Out of School